Amazing Grace
by lizziestar
Summary: Third installment of the 'With Wings Wide Open' trilogy. Grace is apparently special and she doesn't know why. Her best friend Kit died protecting her as she escaped. After that, the six year old ended up on Maximum Ride's back porch. The world seemed calm for a few years. Then, out of the blue she was taken. Now it's up to her friend Griffin to save her. Can he?


**Phew guys. Sorry. It's been forever, I know. I've been super duper busy lately it seems. But... I am back with a new Maximum Ride story as you can clearly see. I swear I will try to go no longer than two weeks without a new chapter. It might be harder once summer is over but we'll see. So... here's the story of Max and Fang's son Griffin and a girl called Grace. Oh, quick thing. The chapters will alternate between Grace's point of view and Griffin's point of view. Okay, that's all. Enjoy.**

Grace's POV

Run, run, run. Remember that, okay? Run, run, run. Do not stop. Never ever stop. You can't stop. You have got to find the house. Gotta find the house. He said it was safe there. He swore it was safe there. Run, run, run. Do. Not. Stop.

I was running as fast as I could. They were after me. I couldn't let them get me. Kit said they'd kill me. They'd already killed her. I'd heard the screams as I ran down the hall. That was when they got the dogs. I was scared of the dogs. They'd rip me to shreds with their big, scary teeth. I didn't want to die like that. It sounded horrible. It sounded painful.

I'd been running for a whole day. I hadn't even stopped to eat though my sides ached with hunger. I knew I was almost at the house now. I'd have to lose them somehow. They weren't supposed to find her. They'd kill her too. They'd kill everyone. I couldn't let that happen. I had to trip them up. I had to.

"Stop running!" They shouted at me as I ran harder and harder, willing myself to get away from them. I had to get away. "You'll never escape us! Give up!" I would not give up. I would not die.

They wanted me so bad. Kit said to never let them get me no matter what. She said the two of us knew too much. If they ever found out, we had to run. They couldn't get us. We'd be killed. They'd already killed her. It was my turn next. But I wouldn't let them get me. I'd lose them. Somehow.

I was only six years old. Kit was eleven, so much wiser, so much braver, so much faster. I always thought she was like my big sister. She wasn't though. Not really. Not biologically. I knew that. Still, I pretended. Kit was so smart. She had always been suspicious of them.

I, on the other hand, never questioned them. I think it was because I was far too young. They'd never given me any reason to believe they were bad. They fed me well, let me watch cartoons, took care of me when I had bad dreams, and made sure I didn't get sick. I never thought of the kids who would disappear. Kit did though. She always thought about them. That was because her older brother Rocky had disappeared three years earlier. Kit didn't like to talk about it much but I knew it bothered her.

That was when she had met _him_. One of the older kids. Ray. Most of the kids thought he was crazy. He said he used to be at another place. The Gifted Academy he called it. They were allowed out every once in a while he had said. That was when they took him. No one believed him. Except Kit. I thought the whole thing was rather silly. It all just sounded like a fairy tale to me. What did I know though? I was too little.

Ray had told me and Kit stories from the G.A. He especially liked to tell stories of Melody Smith, Maximum Ride, and their family and friends. The stories were just too fantastic to be real, but Ray assured us that they were one hundred percent fact.

A couple of months before I had to run for my life, Ray disappeared too. However, before it had happened, he had entrusted Kit and I with the location of Maximum Ride's home. (No idea how he got that.) Looking back, I think he knew what they were about to do to him. The poor kid.

Anyway, that was when Kit had decided to snoop. I was assigned the position of lookout. She found out, among other things, what was happening to the kids who disappeared. They decided they were too weak or too troublesome. They would take them into a room that was always locked. They strapped them down and injected them with a needle which killed them.

Kit then knew that we needed to get out of there pronto before the same thing happened to us. She spent all of her free time hatching an escape plan that would take us to Maximum Ride, to safety. It went horribly wrong.

They were waiting for us. They knew somehow. Kit and I ran as fast as we could. She kept telling me that I couldn't get caught. I was way more valuable to them than she was. I didn't know what she was talking about. We both, just like everyone else, had super endurance, super sensory skills, and advanced problem solving abilities. How was I any more important? I didn't argue though.

They were gaining on us and fast. Kit looked at and I could see the fear in her eyes. "Keep running." she had said, slipping the location to the house in my pocket. "No matter what, keep running." She stopped short and I slowed down. "No, keep running." she told me as I looked back. "I'll be fine."

I did what I was told. I kept running. "You'll never get her." I heard Kit say. It sounded like she was struggling and I wanted to cry so bad. Something was wrong, I knew it. I wanted to turn back but Kit had told me to keep running. Then, I heard her scream and it chilled me to the core. A second later, the dogs were after me.

So, now I was still running from them like Kit had wanted. A six year old with no one in the whole world. A six year old, running from dogs and evil people that wanted her dead. A six year old, running through the woods in the dead of winter with no shoes or coat.

Suddenly, the back of a house was in sight. This had to be it. This had to be the place that I was looking for, the place that Kit and I had been dreaming of for so long. If I could just make them think I went a different way... I was a ways ahead of them and I knew they couldn't see me.

I ran to the left, fast as my legs would allow. After a minute, I turned around and ran back. I could hear the barking faintly. Hopefully, I'd confuse them. They didn't know where I was running to after all. They just knew that I was running. A creek ran across the wood and I ran straight through it to hide my sent even though my poor feet were already chilled to the bone. It would be a miracle if I escaped frostbite, let alone them. I just had to get to the house.

I ran through the rest of the wood, through the small yard, and up the back porch. I banged my little fists on the door in a panic. They had to come, they had to come quick. A light turned on inside and I heard the sounds of two people walking toward the door.

Hurry, I begged.

A very tall and dark looking man answered the door and looked at me quizzically. A small boy who looked almost identical to the man peeked around his leg and also gave me a look of confusion and wonderment. Was I at the wrong place? Did Ray get the address wrong? I started to panic.

"Is... is... this the... is this... Max... Maximum... Ri... Ride's house?" I panted nervously. There wasn't much time left. Surely they'd see me on this porch soon if I didn't hurry. My knees felt like they were going to buckle.

The man turned his head back into the house. He seemed to realize the urgency of my dire situation. "Max!" he shouted. "Come quick!"

Suddenly, a fairly tall woman with a tangle of brown hair ran into the doorway, every muscle in her body tensed. "Fang, what is it?" She quickly noticed where the man was looking and stared at me too, her muscles relaxing ever so slightly. "Who are you, sweetie?"

"My name's... Grace..." And, with that, I fainted on the spot.


End file.
